


Every Little Gift

by RafaSnape15



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adult Hermione Granger, Christmas, F/M, Missed writing about this couple, Perfect Gift, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Surprises, Tumblr Prompt, alternative universe, not my prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28016298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RafaSnape15/pseuds/RafaSnape15
Summary: Hermione loves gifts. She takes all the time of the world to choose carefully something that will be special to each person in her life. And what better time than Christmas to gift who you love?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Every Little Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Every Little Gift](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28016127) by [RafaSnape15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RafaSnape15/pseuds/RafaSnape15). 



> Hey flowers!!
> 
> I'm back (late but at least I'm here) and now with this couple I love and through them I met this fanfic universe and maybe, just maybe I'm a little emotional with this oneshot...  
> To who don't know yet the plot it's not mine and the credits are at the end to give no spoilers ;)
> 
> Good reading!!!

Gifts were something special to Hermione. Since she was a little kid they were her favourite part of any party. And not only receiving gifts, but specially giving them. All the process of thinking about the perfect thing that not only is something that the person will like but also something that reminds them of you. That exactly gift that will bring a smile and maybe even that little gasp that indicates that you got it right between all the possibilities.

Oh, the joy of who you love receiving a gift was unequaled, even more on Christmas. Christmas was the gift time for excellency and it wasn’t extreme to say that even with almost 30 years, Hermione looked like a kid when that time of year got closer.

Despiste loving all the process of choosing gifts, walking from store to store and sometimes even building them herself, there were some years that she found a great difficulty. Time.

Hermione was a brilliant young woman, which only increased with the passing of years. It wasn’t a surprise when her name started to be said to the next Minister of Magic, even if that was a little far from happening yet.

She not only had her work on the Magical Law department, more specifically the ones about magical creatures. But she also worked in some independent movements that worked for more dignified conditions to the ones in need, and helped her fiance in her open times with his potion’s company.

Yes, fiance. And fiance only because being married was out of the table for Severus Snape, the Not-That-Grumpy Master of Potions.

The relationship between them was still a source of gossip to all the wizarding world, even after seven years. Hermione didn’t blame them, after all it was a surprise to herself sleep and wake up next to the man that was now considered a hero.

When in an impulse she kissed him many years before in a Order of Phoenix's party, she would never imagine that they would reach that point where she found adorable the sarcastic and smart comments coming from him. Especially because now she knew that it was his way of disguising his embarrassment.

And Severus was the person she liked the most to give gifts. Not only because he was her fiance, but also because it was extremely hard to take off a smile from the man. It was!  
Knowing her agenda would be full by the festivities time, Hermione had the brilliant idea of making her shops at the most muggle way. Resorting to delivering websites, she managed to quickly buy gifts for all her friends at the same place. To Severus was a little more complicated, she needed to visit different stores till she finally found the perfect one.

And Hermione was really proud of herself. After all she didn’t use muggle technology with much frequency, but the things she bought were starting to arrive slowly during the week before Christmas.

She had more than enough time to wrap them, write the cards that would go with them and organize them in a way that would be easier to send to the right places on Christmas morning. Hermione felt like an elf of Santa herself and by the roll of eyes and kiss on the cheek she got from Severus when she told him this, her fiance agreed with her.

Being Hermione Granger of course she kept a careful list with the relation of already done gifts and the ones yet to come. The sensation of scratching names of the list was awesome, like one more big conquer. but then her brilliant idea started to look like a nightmare.

Three days to Christmas Eve and only one gift hadn’t arrived. According to the link to track her order, Severus’s gift had already left the store and was on the way to her house, so she only took a deep breath and started doing paperworks.

Two days before Christmas and the message was still the same. Soon the order would be at her house. Distressful, but she could wait till the next day, right? So she just left the computer aside and went to join Severus in front of the fireplace where she knew they would cuddle with a good book for the rest of the night, reading and discussing their theories about it.

But then it was the end of afternoon at the 24th of december, mails closed and nothing of Severus’s gift. Just a few hours before midnight when Severus and her used to exchange gifts.

They had a ritual only theirs. Hermione loved Christmas while Severus said he didn’t have many good memories about that time of year. Even reluctantly, he didn’t oppose to follow any tradition she wanted to create for them, then they would make cookies, eggnog and meatloaf from Eileen’s recipe. They would have dinner just the two at some special   
place and away from curious eyes, then they sat by the big tree at the living room and exchanged gifts.

For the rest of the night they enjoyed only the other's presence and the following day had lunch at the Borrow with the Weasleys and other Order members. But Severus didn’t need to be a genius to know that the most special moment to Hermione was the exchange of gifts.

Anyone that knew minimally Hermione would know why Severus’s gift not arriving at time for Christmas was enough to drive her crazy. There’s no other term, after all as soon as the clock showed six o’clock at her pulse Hermione grabbed her purse, not even bothering with anything else and left searching for somewhere that might still be open.

It was a great luck that they lived at the Muggle London and not at some faraway wizard community.

Hermione had searched two department stores fully after a good gift, but nothing was good enough. Some things were too colorful, others too monochromatic. There were things that were simply useless and she knew Severus would say thank you thinking about the waist of money and space. And there were things that she knew he wouldn’t accept for being too expensive.

Severus was a very selective person with everything he had at the same time that he had a very simple taste, close to hers. With a frustrated sound she dropped a hat back at the shelf and went decidedly to the next store.

Looking at all the toys exposed by the front, Hermione just kept walking. She could see Severus literally setting fire at the gift if it was a teddy bear. And not even all the funniness of watching him outraged made her humor better.

The next store was a little market and despite knowing there would be nothing there, she got inside anyway. Useless, since five minutes later she was back to the cold streets with no bags in hands.

The same thing happened to the next ten stores.

Hermione considered buying a new flavour of alcohol drink to the fiance’s untouched collection, but it was too impersonal and she couldn’t make herself take the bottle to the register. She could swear she heard someone say something about alcohol problems behind her, but ignored and moved on.

She thought about going to the wizarding London, but she knew all the stores were closed so bye bye new sets of clothes or the last generation of some potion’s kit. Even some pranks from Weasley's store would have been a good idea.

She thought about buying Severus a cellphone, but remembered the last time that she tried to give him something like that. Severus had horrible memories about muggle objects from his childhood and despite living along with Hermione’s ones, he refused to use them. So cellphone and laptop are out of the list.

Shoes would be nice, but she knew he was meticulous with his clothes since many fabrics and materials could get in the way of cooking some potions and some of the complex magic he cast, so that idea could backfire.

Muggle clothes were also an idea that crossed her mind. She saw a suit that would be great for him, but he already had one that was only getting dust in the wardrobe since most part of the events they went to was in the wizarding world.

With a tired sigh she found a bookstore. The boy on the register looked about to close and she sent him a smile with an apology. She promised him mentally that she wouldn’t take long.

The place wasn’t that big and very well divided.That helped the process since she could eliminate lots of sections that she knew that wouldn’t interest Severus. Hermione knew that was her last shot, after all every store was closing and she refused to go back home without anything.

It wouldn’t be that hard to find a good gift for a reader in a bookstore, but between the titles that caught her attention and the ones she knew could interest him, the task got complicated. Her mental list of books that she wanted to read only increased while the gift possibilities decreased.

At the end, Hermione did something she never did before. She closed her eyes and raised her hand in the classics session. She managed to at least decide that she wanted a book they could read together and that would be of use to put him to sleep. A light reading before bed was something rare at their headboards. At least something other people would consider as light reading too.

She didn’t even look at the book she chose, afraid of regretting and prolonging the poor boy’s suffering that seemed ready to leave through the door. Hermione decided too to take a wine from the little store near her house, after all if that ended as a disaster - like she foresee it to be - she at least could resort to alcohol to forget the episode.

Severus said he would be at his lab till dinner time, since he needed to finish some mysterious potion he had been working at for some days. It was common to happen, since even the Ministry did some orders a little… suspicious from the man, ones he said it was best if Hermione didn’t know. Hermione took advantage that he wasn’t around to wrap the gifts and put them under the tree.

She left the book for last, not wanting to see what she chose. And when she saw the title she felt tears coming to her eyes. That wasn’t the special gift she wanted to give Severus. Only by the cover could she already imagine exactly what would happen in the story and she hated books so obvious like that.

Not managing to hold her frustration, she threw the package carelessly at the tree’s direction and sank in the couch, hiding her face in her hands while the tears that wanted to shed for days came like a waterfall.

“Hermione, do you want me to…” Severus’s voice sounded at her back, but he stopped the phrase in the middle to complete some seconds later “Are you crying?”

“No” she answered sniffling, without taking her hands from her face “It’s just the cold from outside.”

“What happened?” he asked in a serious tone sitting at her side.

Hermione gave a little smile in middle tears. She always was moved with the way he expressed near her. Kind of awkward, but genuinely worried. But then the smile died because he shouldn’t be worried, he should be happy.

“I ruined Christmas” she whispered, feeling like a little girl looking shyly at him.

“Ruined Christmas? What are you talking about?”

“I bought a gift for you through the internet but it didn’t arrive and it was so perfect and then when I went looking for others there was none, the gift I bought you it’s terrible and you’ll hate it and it ended all Christmas magic!”

Severus looked first blinking slowly, then frowning and rolling his eyes at last. He pulled her to his chest and caressed her revolt hair till she stopped crying.

“You didn’t ruin Christmas and I’m sure that you wouldn’t be able to give me anything I would hate.”

“But…”

“No” He stopped her, raising her face with only a finger in her chin “I know you’ll be upset with it till we solve it, so, let’s invert things and exchange gifts already.”

“Severus!” She got horrified “We can not, it’s our tradition!”

“And it is for being ours that we can” he gave a cocky smile till receiving an eye roll in response. Maybe she was expending too much time with him.

“Alright, but don’t hate me.”

"Impossible." His serious tone made shivers run through Hermione's body, but she attributed to the cry the way her legs were shaking while she grabbed the two packages at the floor.

“This here is the gift.” she extended the book “And this here is in case you hate the gift” she offered the bottle.

With a raised eyebrow, Severus ignored the bottle and opened with care the book. In the cover a couple in old clothes hugged in a dramatic position. It wasn’t the type of thing that he would choose by himself, but didn’t look that bad. He wasn’t against romances, for more that they looked graceless. Even more after starting to date Hermione. His feeling for her was so different from what he had for Lily that suddenly all that rubbish from the books made sense to him. Not that he someday would admit it outloud, but yet.

“It isn’t the worst gift” Severus looked with a small smile “It may be interesting even.”

“So don’t want the wine?” She asked with a shy smile.

“Of course yes! Both are mine, right?” He asked, grabbing the bottle in a way he knew to take laughs from her.

“They are, but go slowly. You’re confronting all that redheads tomorrow and with a hangover it isn’t a good idea.”

“Now this!” He pretended indignation “That way I’ll have to put away your gift.”

“My gift?” She asked, surprised.

He wasn’t much of a fan of that type of thing even if he didn’t let the date pass by unnoticed. Severus only kept himself in a type of practical things. She needed something? So that’s what he would give her.

“Of course, you’re not the only one that knows how to do something special.”

And then he took a glassy flasky all detailed from inside his dressing pockets. Inside a thick liquid agitated. Only the glass was already pretty enough to seem like a gift, but Hermione knew that what made that special was what was inside.

“Is it the potion you were working on?”

“Isn’t exactly a potion.” He explained gesticulating for her to pick it up and open the flask. “The french cosmetic company that got in touch some weeks ago asked if I could   
develop a perfume to their line of great potion masters.”

“Severus! You said it was nothing!” Hermione holded the flask but gave her fiance her total attention.

“I had to or you would go pry the lab.”

“So this is your perfume?” She opened a little the flask smelling an addictive combination of scents while he agreed with his head “It’s amazing! Does it have a name?”

“L’amour” He answered looking kind of bewildered at the christmas tree and Hermione knew that what he would say next would be something important “it’s the combination of   
fragrances I smell in Amortentia since I fell for you.”

“Severus!”

Hermione was speechless. She always knew that gifts were something special. They get people together, show who you are and reveal deep feelings. But that was the first one she received with that much meaning.

Not knowing how to answer equally, she put carefully the book and perfume side by side and threw herself at Severus lap, sharing kisses through all his face. 

That was the best Christmas ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Who would say Severus being such a romantic? And to people that might ask he really hated the book, just never told this detail to Mione. Well, I hope you liked it!
> 
> Link: https://promptinspiration.tumblr.com/post/134744507478/things-are-going-terribly-christmas-aus
> 
> Prompt: “I tried to order you presents online but they’re not here and it’s fucking Christmas Eve so now I’m desperately going from store-to-store in search of something to give you”


End file.
